Study: Greece Holding Strong in EU Short-term Rental Demand

Greece is holding strong in Europe in terms of overnight short-term rental bookings, according to a study released this week by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical agency.

The agency’s first statistics on short-term accommodation cover national, regional and city-level data on the number of stays booked and the number of nights spent in 2018 and 2019 in accommodation booked via Airbnb, Booking, Expedia Group and Tripadvisor.

Overall in 2019, before the Covid-19 outbreak, more than 554 million guest nights in the EU were booked via one of these platforms recording on average 1.5 million guests on a random day.

Greece is among the top 10 in terms of number of stays or overnight stays per visitor or family.

Annual number of guest nights and stays at short-stay accommodation offered via collaborative economy platforms, by origin (domestic vs international), 2019.

In the Top 5, Spain leading with one in five guest nights (112 million), followed by France (109 million), Italy (83 million), Germany (40 million) and Portugal (33 million).

Greece was among countries recording over 10 million guest nights in 2019 at 28,756,000, followed by Croatia (26 million), Poland (22 million), Austria (17 million), Czechia and Hungary (both 10 million).

Of the total 28.7 million, broken down in 2019 Greece recorded 1,723,000 domestic guest nights and 27,033,000 international guest nights. In terms of number of stays, of the 2,572,000 total for the same year, 217,000 were by domestic travelers and 2,354,000 by international travelers.

Key takeaways of the Eurostat study:

– in 2019, more than 1.5 million tourists per night slept in a bed booked via the online booking platforms

– more than one in three guest nights was spent during the peak months of July and August.

– in Greece the level of seasonality (measured as the share of July and August in the total guest nights spent during the year) was at 48 percent, after Croatia (62 percent) and Bulgaria (50 percent).

– one in eight guest nights in the EU reserved via platforms was spent in the regions Andalusia, Adriatic Croatia or Catalonia

– Greece was among 12 regions where 95 percent or more of the visitors came from abroad.

Regions with more than 95% international guests staying at short-stay accommodation offered via collaborative economy platforms, 2019.

– Paris was the most popular city.

– Athens ranked 12^th.

– with regard to accommodation of choice, most guest nights (91 percent) were spent at facilities where the tourists could use the entire dwelling (apartment, house),

In Greece, this figure stood at 95 percent in 2019.

Referring to the impact of the pandemic on the tourism industry and efforts being made to accelerate recovery, Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton projected that “by 2030, Europe should be a top quality destination known globally for its sustainable offer, and attracting responsible and environmentally conscious travelers. The comprehensive data on short-term accommodation rentals published today will support public authorities in developing evidence-based policies”.

Data for 2020 will be available after the summer and statistics for the first months of 2021 will be released in autumn.